Biggles Flies Again Vol. 3 No. 2
Published: October 2009 Editor: John Lester Previous Issue: Biggles Flies Again Vol. 3 No. 1 Next Issue: Biggles Flies Again Vol. 3 No. 3 Index of Contents *'The Editor's Cockpit' *'Enter ... 4: Raymond and Wilks' **Extracts from The Camels are Coming which introduce the characters of Raymond and Wilks. *'The Press Cuttings Collection', by Marie Scofield **Includes an account of a pilot, Mr Hagedorn who attributes his survival in an aircrash to a technique (pancaking on the tops of trees) he had learnt while reading a Biggles story (Biggles Goes Ballooning from Biggles in France). **Notes that Royal Air Force News had a Group Captain informing readers that W. E. Johns was the officer who intially rejected and was then ordered to accept the application of T. E. Lawrence into the R.A.F. The same correspondent also postulated that Worrals was an amalgam of several real-life individuals, Amy Johnson, and Pauline Gowers, head of the women's section of the wartime Air Transport Auxilliary. *'A Biggles Artist - J. E. McConnell', by Norman Wright **An appreciation of one of the lesser known illustrators of the Biggles books. *'Cave Quid Dicis?', by Daniel Tangri **Research article. Tangri discusses authors of Popular Flying whom Sir Peter Masefield had thought to be pen names of W. E. Johns. "Vigilant" is widely thought to be Caud Sykes, and John Templer had been shown elsewhere to be John Townend, and ex-R.A.F. officer who became Johns' business partner in Aircraft and General Fine Art Company. **Tangri focuses his research on the identity of Arthur Cave. Apparently Masefield had it first hand from Johns that he was Cave. But Tangri notes that in fact, in an issue of Popular Flying, Johns himself identified Christopher Sprigg as the person behind Cave. Tangri analyses the similarities in plotlines between some Cave and Johns stories and postulates why that may have happened, concluding that Johns might have collaborated in some of the stories. *'More on the Schneider Trophy', by Daniel Tangri **Research article on some illustrations of the competition aircraft which Johns had done. *'Schneider Trophy Milestones', by W. E. Johns **Subtitled "The history of the world's greatest flying contest". **Reprint from The Graphic, 12th September 1931. *'Biggles' Fictional Contemporaries No. 3. Colin Standish', by John Lester *'The Quality of Captain W. E. Johns - 4: Creating Atmosphere', by John Lester **Research article in which Lester analyses Johns' skill at creating atmosphere with an extract from Biggles in the Gobi. *'Under the Wind-Stocking - letters to the Editor' **Dan Godfrey notes the comprehensive errors in the bidding process for the bridge game in The Packet (The Camels are Coming) and asks for a comparison with the text in the 1st ed. The editor replies that the bidding sequence in the version as first published in Popular Flying is correct. An error seems to have occured in transferring the story from magazine to book. **Trevor Mason writes to add 3 more names to his 266 Roll Call. **Daniel Tangri writes about the incongruity of Biggles being promoted twice (see Biggles Flies Again Vol. 3 No. 1, the article What Happened to Biggles in WW1', by Ward Powers). Biggles' Sky High Spy as first published in Modern Boy did not include the line about Biggles being promoted. The line must have been added by a sub-editor or editor when the story was collected for Biggles in France, probably to explain why Biggles, a lieutenant in earlier stories, suddenly became a captain. **Norman Wright writes in response to Tangri above and explains his choice of the BFL text for Biggles in France for his edition published in 2009. *'Bookshelf' **John Lester reviews Masters of Fun & Thrills: The British Comic Artists Vol. 1 by Norman Wright and David Ashford. **Richard Burdus reviews Night Raiders of the Air by A. R. Kingsford. **Jennifer Schofield reviews the 2008 Norman Wright edition of Biggles Scores a Bull. *'Thompson's Test of Trivialities No. 24', by Alison Thompson **On Biggles Sees It Through *'Answers to Special Quiz No 1 Summer 2009' Category:Biggles Flies Again (magazine) Category:Research works Category:Fan magazines